


Make Me.

by overcomingthedark



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Oops, adn they all just want to support Gert, background deanoru, because come on of course there is, the whole gangs here!, theres some minor minor, this was supposed to be fluffy y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 05:12:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13697571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcomingthedark/pseuds/overcomingthedark
Summary: “Why won’t you let us take care of you?”***Gert keeps fighting the gang's effort to procure her her meds, but Chase has had enough and won't leave her alone until they figure it out.***This comes from a light-hearted "Shut up/Make me!" prompt on tumblr. But I speak angst much more fluently, so this is what happened.





	Make Me.

**Author's Note:**

> this comes from this post on tumblr: http://brutalb.tumblr.com/post/170892942398/so-i-feel-like-shut-upmake-me-kisses-would (lol how do you embed links in the notes section someone teach me how to ao3)  
> It infected me with a plot bunny that insisted on being written. I think OP meant it to be, like, a fluffy cute prompt but then this happened so?? Enjoy xD  
> ~unbetaed, written too quick, and roughly edited; apologies in advance for the inevitable typos <3

            She was doing it again. Going on and on about how it was so much more important they spend their time and effort on getting ‘vital’ things instead of wasting energy on her. 

            “And when was the last time anybody in this house had any sort of fresh food, huh? Humans need fruit and vegetables to stay healthy, and, you know, alive?? Anybody thought about scurvy? Cause I certainly have! It’s not pretty people! Not. Pretty!” Gert somehow has the ability to ramble while she’s chewing someone out, and Chase has no idea how she got from the dangers of breaking into a pharmacy to ranting about old diseases. But she points at Alex viciously to emphasize her point, the pseudo leader of the group the center of Gert’s wrath since he had been the one to bring up her meds this time.  

            Alex shakes his head and Chase can see Molly on the couch behind Gert trying to stifle her laughter. Nico and Karolina are curled up together on the settee opposite but looking sufficiently less amused as Old Lace is beside them, tail whipping, looking just as agitated as her master. Alex doesn’t seem to care as he replies,

            “You’re the only one here worrying about scurvy. Which is a prime example of why we need to get you back on your meds. Medicine is vital, Gert. If Molly had diabetes you would insist on us making a run to get insulin, and this isn’t any different. We’re picking them up on our run tomorrow and that’s final.”

            Gert lets out a frustrated noise that sounds like it should be accompanied by a foot stomp and a childish scream. She whips around to face Chase and he tries to look stoic and determined. To be honest, he’s struggling not to join Molly and reveal how amused he is, but he knows that would only get him into a deeper hole with Gert than he’s already in. She walks right up to him with a thunderous look on her face and spits, under her breath,

            “I know this was your idea. This isn’t over.” She looks over her shoulder and says to the rest of the room, “I won’t let you risk yourselves for me. It’s stupid and I won’t.” She storms out of the room, then, probably to hole up in her room and stew like she has a bad habit of doing.

            Alex sighs and goes back to his notes; a table full of loose sheets and ratty half-used notebooks covered in smudged pencil lead that he pours over most days like a bible. Chase doesn’t really know what the notes contain, or how they’ll help the group out of their current situation, but all of them have their different ways of coping and Chase isn’t about to judge. All he’s done since they got here is pine uselessly over Gert and try and fail to train with his fistigons. He debates for a minute about going after Gert and trying to talk things through with her, but decides that with the mood she’s in, he’d have better luck trying to teach Old Lace to speak.

            Now that Gert is out of the room and all of her negative energy with her, the dinosaur is content again and has gone to lay at Molly’s feet. Molly, being the only one other than Gert who seemed to forget the reality that their pet was a fucking dinosaur, has her feet propped up on the dino’s back. She’s obviously completely dismissed the blowout that just occurred and is back to being totally engrossed in her comic. Chase, feeling at a loss for what to do, follows in Gert’s footsteps and retreats to his room.

            It takes a bit (the Hostel is huge and Chase can’t decide if he likes it or not- he kind of misses all six of them being crammed in the back of a van; at least then he knew Gert and the rest of them were safe) to get to the room he’s chosen for himself, and when he gets there he flops face down onto the dusty comforter.

           Gert was right, of course. It had been his idea to get her meds on the next run. But he won’t let himself feel guilty about going around her to ask Alex directly, because he knew that this would be her reaction. If only they had known her dosage they would have gotten away with it without her finding out- she never went on supply runs, preferring to play defense at the Hostel with Old Lace by her side- but they had no idea what exactly it was they were to steal from the pharmacy they had found a few miles out, and it wouldn’t do to risk it just to bring back the wrong thing. And even though Alex brought it up as casually as he could earlier, it was no use. Gert was too cunning to let something like that slide by her and had already talked them all out of getting the meds in the past- several times. She was a good negotiator.

          But weeks have passed, and she just keeps getting worse. Every morning the circles under her eyes are darker, the words coming out of her mouth snippier, and Chase had caught her in the pantry counting the rolls of toilet paper four times yesterday. He has to admit he isn’t sleeping much either; his demons like to shake him awake at three in the morning after filling his head with graphic bloody nightmares night after night, and so he knows Gert spends most of her nights pacing the halls. Patrolling, is her excuse when he confronts her about it. But the excuse comes too quick and rehearsed out of her chapped and bitten lips and she can’t meet his eyes when she says it.

            Just thinking about it now is making Chase’s blood boil. She spends 24 hours a day worrying about all of them, catastrophizing and planning for the worst and caring for them all so deeply it carves valleys into her face and palms. And Chase tries to do one thing for her and she explodes at all of them. He stands up abruptly. _This is a bad idea_ his brain tells him, _she definitely hasn’t calmed down yet_. But Chase can’t ignore it any longer and his racing heart leads him all the way to her bedroom door. He takes a deep breath, then knocks brusquely.

           When Gert opens the door, her eyes are red and swollen but her mouth is set in a way that Chase knows means there’s a fight ahead. Her lips part, probably to tell him to fuck off, but before she can, Chase pushes past her and into the middle of the room. When he turns back to look at her, her eyes are narrowed, and her jaw is clenched, but she closes the door behind him.

          “Please, come in.” she mumbles under her breath, rolling her eyes. They’re too wet for it to be effective, and Chase falls even more for her. The angry words that had built themselves up in his chest melt and what comes out of his mouth is soft,

          “Why won’t you let us take care of you?” His words are the most earnest thing he’s said to her since they arrived at the Hostel. After a brief stint of the two of them being reasonably okay when they were all stuck in the van and on the run, Gert had pulled away from him again when they found and took refuge in the Hostel. They hadn’t had a real conversation since. Chase had blamed Gert mostly, but now that he’s being real with himself he knows he was just as scared. She looks small standing in front of him, her arms wrapped around her middle and fighting back tears.

          “Gert, we care about you just as much as you care about us, you know. You can’t go on like this, you must see how much you need your meds.” This gets her hackles up instantly, and Chase wonders what it is he said. Gone is the vulnerability she let show for a moment, and back is Gert-With-A-Mission. He can visibly see her walls slam shut and her eyes steel over. She stalks up to him and pokes him hard in the chest,

          “How dare you. How dare you! You think you, what, know me better than I know myself? The rest of you are coping just fine and I’ll do the same, thank you. Fuck you, Chase. Fuck. You. You went behind my back to Alex- I can’t even with that. You think I’m some weak damsel that needs to be saved but News Flash, buddy, I can deal just fine on my own.” Her chest is heaving, and she opens her mouth to no doubt spill more vitriol, but Chase has had enough.

             “Shut up!” he explodes and leaves her gaping at him. “Just shut up, Gert.” When he sees the hurt flash across her face he deflates a bit, but his next words aren’t any less passionate, “That’s bullshit, and you know it. This isn’t me trying to fulfill some male power fantasy and I don’t pretend to know you better than you know yourself. But Gert, I _do_ know you. I see you, remember?” At the call-back to their night together, she flushes all the way down to her chest. Chase goes on, carried away by the feeling that she’s finally hearing him; “I see the way you’re torturing yourself, and it hurts me. When you come downstairs in the morning with shadows under your eyes, I feel them too. When I hear you pacing outside my bedroom door, my heart pounds to the slap of your footsteps. When you’re in pain, I’m in pain. That’s what love is!” The last part comes out in a half-shout, and Chase feels immediately embarrassed. Not only has he just confessed his feelings (in the sappiest way- Jesus, he was spending too much time around Karo), he has basically shoved them down her throat when she is obviously upset and has made it fairly clear she isn’t interested. _Nice going, dipshit_ his brain screamed at him, sounding a lot like his dad, _way to fucking make it about you. Like always. Selfish bastard_.

             Chase is too wrapped up in his own head to see the range of emotions that flit fast over Gert’s face. But he notices when the hand she’s had piercing into his chest moves to lie flat against it, palm directly over his racing heart.

            “…Love?” She's looking up at him through her eyelashes, and god damn if she isn’t the most beautiful thing Chase has ever seen. Her face is closed off, like she’s trying to fight back her emotions, but her closeness and the fact she hasn’t stopped touching him have to count for something. So he takes the plunge.

            “Yeah. Love.” When he sees her facade start to crack, a smile playing on her lips, he swears legit fireworks start to go off in his chest. He brings his hand up to cover hers, and chuckles damply,

            “I’m in love with you. So just shut the hell up already.” Gert is beaming, and stretches up on her toes, almost reaching eye level. And lord, her _eyes_. They’re honest-to-goodness glowing, filling with joy and mischief, and Gert is vibrantly and beautifully alive. More alive than Chase has seen her since the night he held her as she came apart underneath him. He’s so in love with her and it burns through his veins like wildfire. Teetering on the tips of her toes, she comes close enough he can feel her breath against his mouth, and whispers

            “Make me.”

            The kiss is nothing like the frantic night at the school. It’s just as passionate, but that’s where the similarities end. This kiss is soft lips and sweet breath and their hands lacing together like two halves finally becoming whole again. It’s pulling back just so Chase can gaze at her face, her eyes fluttering, and her cheeks tinged pink. It’s her body fitting just right against his as they kiss and kiss and kiss and nothing else. No need for anything else. Gert eventually pulls away just enough to meet his eyes and speaks quietly,

            “I’m so scared. All the time. About everything. That’s why…”

            “I know.” Chase reassures, “I know. We all are. But if there was a way you could help me be less scared, or Karo, or Molly, wouldn’t you do anything in your power to make it happen?” Gert nods and closes her eyes, tucking her head into the space between his neck and shoulder.

            “I love you too, Chase. It terrifies me, but I do.” He wraps her in his arms and holds her as close to him as he can.

            “We’re gonna figure this out. We’re gonna save the world and clear our names and stop going to gas stations to get our food so that we don’t get scurvy.” At that Gert lets out a snort, and the weight on Chase’s shoulders gets a little bit lighter. He sets his hands on her arms and pushes her away a bit, so he can look right into her eyes when he says,

            “But first, tomorrow Alex, Karolina, and I are going to raid that pharmacy and get you your medicine. Okay?” She presses her lips tightly together and her eyes fill, but she manages to get out a quiet,

            “Okay,” before she buries herself back in his arms.

            Chase closes his eyes and lets out a breath that feels like it’s been trapped inside his lungs since this whole mess began. There was still so much to figure out, everything left to do. But he didn’t feel like a fish flopping around on dry land anymore. With Gert in his arms, he felt like a superhero. And that’s exactly what they needed to fight the villains they were up against.

            But for now, right now, he was going to stand here, wrapped around the girl that he loved, the scent of her filling his nose and the feel of her filling his heart.

 ***

**Author's Note:**

> Chase is the cheesiest soppiest romantic at heart and he can blame Karolina's influence all he wants but he is definitely the romantic in this relationship.  
> I really enjoyed this and I hope y'all did too! I'm shaky with Chase's characterisation- I find it much easier to get into Gert's head, but this fic demanded to be written from his perspective so here we are.  
> Let me know what you thought?  
> xoxo
> 
> Oh! and come hang with me on tumblr, overcoming-the-dark


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